Unusual You
by TheDarkDancerWithTheDawnRose
Summary: Haruka dies leaving Michiru on her own. After years Michiru decides to work on a project as a legacy for her partner and finds herself falling for a young architect working on the project. Will they get together? Will Haruka come back?
1. Chapter 1

Hi all this is one of the first stories I've ever written so please be gentle. I appreciate all kinds of reviews so please review please, please, please review as long as you have something constructive to say and you can say it politely. This story is about Michiru and what might happen to her if Haruka and Hotaru died and after a while Hotaru is reborne as her own child but Haruka still hasn't come back. I won't give away too much more but I hop you like it. I'm going to try and keep the chapters relatively short and try and update regularly but of course life can interfere so no promises I'll try my best. I got the idea for this story after listening to Britney Spears song Unusual you hence the title. If you haven't heard it yet I highly recommend it it's a lovely song. Thanks and enjoy

**Unusual You**

Chapter 1: The Presentation**  
**

Michiru stopped outside the closed office door and took a deep breath. Inside this room there were lots of people waiting for her to arrive and take them through the presentation she'd spent the last week putting together.

She had never liked people all that much, and she liked standing up in front of them giving presentations even less. But this project had been her idea, her dream and she wasn't about to let someone else decide how it was to go ahead and who would be involved.

Standing up in front of them brandishing a violin was a different story of course. She didn't have to speak then she could just play her music and let it speak for her.

She sighed, if only people spoke in musical notes her life would be so much simpler. They didn't of course and she had to get over her antisocial nature and distain for men in suits or her project would never go ahead.

She took another few moments to check her appearance in the mirror that adorned the wall opposite the offending door. After smoothing out her hair and making sure her suit jacket was sitting properly she turned back to face the door.

Another few deep breaths and she opened the door a winning smile plastered on her perfect face. Every face in the room turned to look at her and she had to remind herself once again that this was her dream otherwise she may very well turn and run away as fast as she could.

"Good morning everyone" she greeted politely making her way to the front of the long oval desk where a large white wall awaited her presentation also.

"I'm very sorry to have kept you waiting. I know you are all very busy people and I promise that I won't keep you long" she smiled sweetly at her assistant who stood at a small desk to the far side of the white wall.

In front of her sat a small black laptop computer, a cup of coffee that was nearly as big as aforementioned computer and a small black remote to control the projector that sat on the roof in the centre of the table facing the large white wall.

The young girl who fit the description of naughty secretary down to the ground with her bleached, blonde hair, form fitting skirt and blouse and small, thick rimmed, rectangular black glasses returned her smile and out of nowhere produced another -thankfully smaller- cup of coffee for her boss.

Michiru could never figure out where she kept these things. She was constantly whipping things out of nowhere from cups of coffee to legal documents and try as hard as she might Michiru could never work out where from.

She'd given some thought to asking the other woman, but she had so much fun pondering over the mystery and laughing at some of the possibilities that popped into her head. In the end she'd decided that if she ever found out for sure it would deprive her of far too much entertainment and because of that she'd kept the burning question to herself.

She took her coffee gratefully and quietly thanked her lovely assistant. The young blonde tapped a few keys on her computer while Michiru took a quick swallow of her coffee. By the time she'd placed the cup on her assistant's desk and taken hold of the remote that controlled the projector the young blonde had her presentation up on the computer ready to go.

Plastering on her smile once again she turned back to face the table of suits. Looking around the room she reminded herself of who they were and which companies they represented. She was suddenly thankful of the exceptional memory she'd inherited as part of her senshi gift.

Once she was sure she remembered who they all were she moved on to introductions.

"Good morning ladies" she focused her attention on the two female suits that had chosen to sit together near the front of the table. "And Gentlemen" she allowed her eyes to sweep the room taking in the rest of its occupants.

"Thank you so much for your attendance at this presentation today I am absolutely thrilled to see you all here." She cringed mentally at her own lie; she wasn't thrilled to have them here at all. If it was up to her she'd fund her project on her own she certainly had the money.

These people comprised a large percentage of the heads of the business world however, and if she wanted her venture to be successful having these people on board would be a must. She knew it and she was sure they did too which is why she needed this presentation to go well.

With an inward sigh she continued.

"I have asked you all here to discuss a project that I think will greatly benefit not only the talented young people of today, but also the world at large." she gave them a moment to pass curious, incredulous and even some slightly bored looks at each other before she clicked the button on the remote to activate the projector.

The aforementioned piece of equipment whirred to life casting an image of a large concrete structure on to the previously bare white wall in front of the table. She gave the suits another moment to stare at the image in front of them before she said.

"Ladies and gentlemen, may I present the Tenoh Haruka, Soichi Tomoe academy of excellence. Sounds of surprise touched her ears as her guests began to understand what exactly it was they were looking at.

She'd chosen her guests carefully and she knew after hearing that, that most of them would be a lot more eager to contribute. When she'd been deciding who to invite to this presentation Setsuna had somehow -Michiru didn't want to know exactly how- dug up as much info as she could about the business men and women that Michiru had in mind.

Her list of guests had been a fair deal longer in the beginning and she'd been having trouble narrowing down her numbers. In the end she'd chosen the people that had the most to do with either Haruka or Soichi during their professional lives and they had been the one's she'd invited.

She'd hoped that their liking for her former partner and her daughter's birth father would make her guests more likely to contribute their support, in whatever form that might take. She allowed them a few more moments to compute the information they'd just received before clicking to the next page of her presentation.

This page included the location of the academy, the surface area, the materials that would be used and the soil composition of her selected site. She watched their faces for any hint as to what they might be thinking as she read out the information, wishing, not for the first time, that Haruka was there with her.

Haruka always seemed to know what people were thinking, what they were feeling and what she had to say to convince them to agree to her point of view. It had been one of her greatest personal gifts and something that Michiru had never been able to master without her.

She felt sadness consuming her, the way it always did when she thought about her perfect wind soldier and all they'd shared in the short spanse of time they'd been allowed. No matter how much time passed or how many therapists she'd seen the pain never went away, she never got any better, the feeling of despair never eased.

She knew she couldn't afford to be dwelling on sadness while the suits were all present and waiting for her to continue. With practiced skill she diverted her mind to her infant daughter and how proud she would be when she was old enough to remember her original birth father and her Haruka Papa.

With that thought spurring her on Michiru changed to the next screen and continued on with her presentation. She'd have time to think about Haruka when it was over and she was driving home in the wind soldier's yellow porche.

-----

I know short and sweet but like I said I don't want to make the chapters too long. If you can think of anything to review on please feel free to wrote to me otherwise I'll have a new chapter up soon. Thanks for reading


	2. Chapter 2

Here's the next installment I hope you like it.

**Chapter 2 Decisions**

"Open wide baby girl, here comes the aeroplane" Michiru coaxed the tiny child sitting in the high chair in front of her. Hotaru giggled at her mama and opened her mouth. Michiru made all of the sound effects of a plane and swooped the spoon of baby food around and around before settling it gently into the little girl's mouth.

Hotaru closed her mouth and chewed quickly before opening her mouth for another spoonful. Michiru laughed at the little girl and scooped up some more food.

"Are you hungry this morning Himmie Chan?" she asked as the little girl swallowed another mouthful. Hotaru smiled at the water soldier and opened her mouth for more.

"Today's a big day sweet heart" she told her little girl. "Today the investors are going to let us know if they want to be part of papa and Haruka papa's school. Isn't that exciting?" The little girl grinned widely at her mother once more and Michiru chuckled back at her.

"Of course you have no idea what mama is talking about, but you will one day." Hotaru cocked her head to the side and looked at her mother curiously. Michiru chuckled again.

"You look so adorable when you do that Himmie chan." She told the little girl adoringly. Hotaru turned her head to the other side and continued to study her mother. Michiru sighed.

"I wonder how much you can understand sometimes my incredible little girl. Do you know what I'm talking about? Or do you just seem like you do?" Hotaru blinked at her a few times before accepting another bite of her breakfast.

Michiru studied her daughter while she chewed her food and offered her another bite.

"Am I a good mama Hotaru Himmie?" She asked. "Are you happy with just me? Am I as good as I was when Haruka papa was still with us, or did I lose more than I thought when I lost her?" She gave Hotaru her last bite of food and took the plate to the sink to wash it out.

She cleaned the little girl's face, took her bib off and pulled her out of the high chair.

"I guess we should get you bathed and dressed so we can drop you off on time this morning hey." Michiru suggested heading upstairs. She ran a small bath for the little girl and sat her gently in the water.

She ran a washer over her tiny body and got the rest of the food off her face. She picked her up from the tub and dried her off. She was about to take her into her room to dress her when she noticed Hotaru was looking at her oddly.

"What's wrong sweet heart?" She asked concerned. The little girl studied her for a moment longer before reaching out to touch Michiru's face. A smile spread across her lovely features and she said.

"Love you mama."

Tears burned at Michiru's eyes. Yes, there were some things she definitely did understand.

"I love you too my precious miracle." She kissed the little girl and took her to her room to pick an outfit for the day.

--

Michiru sat at the end of the table of suits waiting for everyone to arrive and give her their answers about the funding for the school. Her assistant stood at her desk in the corner of the room as always waiting just as impatiently as Michiru.

Finally the last of the suits arrived and Michiru called everyone in the room to order. When at last all were silent she once again welcomed them all and thanked them for coming. As soon as pleasantries were over she handed the floor over to the first lady on her left.

The lady, who's name was Lynda Morton, stood from her spot at the desk and greeted everyone present. Lynda was the head of one of the largest architectural firms in the world. She had only just inherited it from her father so, like Michiru, she was fairly new to all this.

Her father had still been in charge when Michiru sent out the invitations for the original presentation. His company had been a sponsor of Haruka's and he, she was told, had been a rather big fan of the young f1 racer.

Michiru had been disappointed when she'd found out he'd retired. She didn't know if Lynda had been a fan like her father and if she hadn't, would she still support the project? Michiru hoped, with all her might that she would.

As the young heiress turned her attention to Michiru, the ocean soldier found herself unintentionally holding her breath.

"Miss Kaioh" she greeted pleasantly "I think you venture sounds absolutely wonderful and my company would be more than happy to contribute any way we can." Relief washed through the ocean soldier. She let out the breath she'd been holding and smiled up at the young woman.

"Thank you very much Miss Morton." She replied "Your contribution is greatly appreciated. The woman bowed respectfully to Michiru and sat down again.

A new bout of nerves hit her as the second lady stood up to give her answer. It was very quickly quashed as she too pledged her support to Michiru's endeavour.

The response around the rest of the room was overwhelming. As they moved around the table, more and more companies got behind Michiru's project. It was absolutely incredible. Michiru had anticipated a few of them dropping off but none of them did.

As the numbers grew Michiru felt a swell of pride for her late partner. Even though many or the people in the room were associated in some way with Soichi, the bulk of them were associated in one way or another with Haruka.

"Can you see this Haruka?" she sent her thoughts out to the universe. "Most of this is because of you. You touched all these people so much in the short time you were alive and I doubt you were even aware of it." She signed internally.

"Oh Haruka I miss you so much, I wish so badly that you were here. You did so many wonderful things for me in the tiny space of time we had together. You brought me happiness and joy; you made me feel loved and cherished all the time.

You were such a wonderful, generous person, and because of that these people are going to help me build a legacy for you so you'll never be forgotten." She felt tears burn at her eyes for the second time that day. But instead of the tears of sadness that usually plagued her when she thought of Haruka these were tears of gratitude and happiness.

When at last all the suits had announced their support Michiru stood up once more to address them.

"Thank you all so very much. I can't tell you what this will mean for the academy." She gifted them all with her most grateful smile before continuing.

"However your company would like to contribute, please send the information to my assistant and she will have all the official documents prepared and returned to you for approval as soon as possible. We will keep you informed of any major developments and send you weekly updates so you can keep track of your investment. Thank you again so much for your support it will be an honour to work on this project with you all."

The suits all rose in unison and bowed politely to Michiru. She returned their bow and they filed quietly out of the room. As soon as they were all gone she dropped back into her seat, a serene smile on her face.

"I'm so proud of you Haruka" she sent her thoughts out once more. "I hope you're proud of me too."

--

There we go another chapter. Thank you for those of you who reviewed Mistress Mina, Davis Jes and little Mistress Me I love reviews. More soon


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3 The Design Team

Michiru arrived at her office around 9 in the morning and was greeted as always by her lovely assistant with an even lovelier cup of coffee.

"Good morning boss" The young girl greeted her handing over the happy caffeine.

"Good morning Lara, how are you?" She asked taking a sip of her coffee.

"Just stellar Boss, how are you?" Michiru took another sip of her coffee and thought about it.

"Hmmm…I'd have to go with wonderful myself Lara." She replied with a bright smile. Lara looked at her somewhat surprised. It wasn't often that she saw her boss in such high spirits and she had to admit, she liked it.

"That's great Boss" she replied with a smile.

"Isn't it" Michiru agreed and headed into her office. Sitting down at her desk she opened her diary and was reminded about why she was in such a good mood.

Today the design team were coming to discuss the layout of Haruka's school. It was the first big step toward realizing her dream -after that horrid presentation- and she couldn't be more excited.

She had an image in her mind about how she wanted the school to be set out. Of course she'd have to wait and see what the design team said, but she was hoping that the end result wouldn't vary too much from what she imagined.

Taking a seat at her desk she turned on her lap top. Once it was through its start up routine she opened the Email she'd received from the design team last week. It detailed everything they wanted to talk to her about as well as listing the names of all the people who would be visiting her office today.

She read and reread the names of the design team over and over again, making sure she remembered them all perfectly. The last thing she wanted was to embarrass herself by calling one of them the wrong name.

Of course she could only prepare herself so much. Until she actually met her design team she had no way of putting names to faces. She had discovered while she was growing up however, that if she memorised people's names before she met them it made remembering who was who that much easier.

Her parents had hosted hundreds of parties and she was expected to know the name of every person who walked through their door. Her father had told her it was to help her learn the value of a name and how important it would be when she had to go out into the world on her own. Really, it was so she could remind her parents of who they were talking to.

While she had no real love for her parents -particularly after they'd thrown her out for wanting to date girls rather than boys- she had found that particular skill rather useful in the business world.

Of course once she was out on her own she'd had to remind herself, that if for some reason she forgot someone's name, her father wasn't around to beat her for it later. Her father was such a bastard.

Turning her thoughts back to more pleasant matters she read through the names again. The company director would be along today as well as the design team consisting of 3 architects and their group leader

The director's name was Shuko, the rest of the design team were Emanuel, Shinji and Cassidy and the team leader's name was Ari. For some reason Ari's name always drew her attention. She wasn't exactly sure why. It was a lovely name of course but it was only a name she hadn't even met a person to put to it yet so why did it draw her so?

She shook her head and sighed. She'd probably never know so there was no point stressing about it. She looked down at her watch, almost 9:30 the team would be here soon. She called down to her assistant and requested that the tea be prepared in anticipation of her guest's arrival, then sat back to wait.

Not 5 minutes later Lara called up to inform her that the team had arrived and she was bringing them and the tea upstairs. Michiru stood up ready to greet them. They reached her door in groups of two.

Lara was at the front leading the way with Shuko beside her. Shuko was tall and slim with short, curly black hair that was silvering at the temples and large brown eyes with lines off to the side indicating that the other woman spent a lot of her time smiling. Michiru liked that. She introduced herself and shook Michiru's hand before introducing the rest of the group.

Shinji was a relatively short man with sensibly, short cut hair and brown eyes and he was walking beside Cassidy who was at least a head taller with blonde hair and blue eyes. They both smiled at Michiru and bowed politely before moving along and allowing the last pair entry into the small office.

Emmanuel was tall with short spiky brown hair and blue/grey eyes and walking beside him…. Michiru's breath caught as her eyes stopped on Ari. She wasn't what you'd call classically beautiful, more attractive then anything else.

She wasn't overly tall, about half a head taller than Michiru with long chocolate brown hair, big, bright hazel eyes and pale skin with a light splatter of freckles on her cheeks and across her nose.

Michiru was in a daze but somehow she managed to bow politely in greeting.

"It's lovely to meet you all" she was suddenly even more grateful for her horrid parents who'd taught her to be able to speak clearly and evenly even when you wouldn't think it possible.

"Why don't we all head down to the drawing room and you can show me what you have in mind for the school." Michiru suggested. Shuko agreed eagerly and Michiru lead the way down to the drawing room.

--

That afternoon Michiru made her way over to the temple to collect Hotaru. She was so angry with herself and it took every ounce of her effort not to yell and scream at her reflection every time she caught sight of it in the car's sun visor.

She'd managed to take her seat at the table in the drawing room and listen as Shuko went on about measurements and soil consistency.

She had no interest whatsoever in any of that stuff since most of it was the information that she herself had collected. So she was greatly pleased when Shuko stopped talking and directed Shinji to unroll the plans they'd drawn up.

Her excitement had ramped up several notches as she'd looked down at the what would be Haruka's legacy all drawn out on paper in front of her. Everything looked just wonderful from what she could see -of course she didn't really understand architectural plans all that well so she was really only guessing that everything was wonderful-.

She'd been excited to hear what the design team would tell her about their plans and she'd sat back eagerly waiting for one of them to talk. Then Ari had stood up to speak and Michiru's mind had gone blank.

She growled at herself as she remembered sitting there watching the brunette talk and was even more annoyed to discover, that despite her undivided attention being entirely focused on the woman she hadn't heard a word of what she'd said.

She indicated when she reached the street she needed to take to get to the temple and turned into it a lot quicker than she probably should have. She thought to herself in that moment how proud Haruka would be of her for not driving at what the blonde liked to call 'grandma speed' for once. And then the tears came.

When she finally pulled up at the temple she turned the car off and hugged the steering wheel. The car still smelled of the wind soldier how could Michiru even be thinking about anyone else? She fought to regain her composure but she was so angry with herself that the tears wouldn't stop.

Had it not been for her innate Sailor Neptune abilities Michiru wouldn't have had any idea that someone was approaching her car. As it was, by the time she looked up the person was already standing beside the car looking down at her in concern.

Her blue eyes met Rei's dark purple and she tried unsuccessfully for a smile.

"Oh hi Rei, I didn't notice you there I'm sorry." She quietly apologised looking down and wiping her eyes.

"Are you all right?" Rei asked. Michiru looked up into Rei's concerned eyes once more and found that she couldn't bring herself to lie to the fire soldier. Slowly she shook her head.

"No I'm not." She replied. "And I don't think I'm ever going to be."


End file.
